Lawrence Schick, then the head of the creative department, believes that Otus was portraying fellow creative staff members. Other people employed at TSR at the time agree that management found this particular illustration objectionable, but disagree as to who was being caricatured. Author Jim McLauchlin points out that at the time, some people were claiming that D&D promoted devil worship, and during this 'Satanic Panic', 'the image posed a very real threat to the company's bottom line.' However, Frank Mentzer later claimed that the objectionable art was rather tame compared to that released in some other products of the time, and that the real reason was the Erol Otus caricatures of TSR executives in the illustration of the ubues. These included 'The Illusion of the Decapus' by Laura Roslof, wife of Jim Roslof, in which a woman tied up by her own hair was being tortured by demonic-looking figures.

Some sources state that the objectionable content was four pieces of artwork by Erol Otus and Laura Roslof that were too overtly sexual. On the eve of publication, when the cartons of printed modules arrived at TSR headquarters ready for shipping, someone in TSR's upper management objected strongly to the module. I was assuming that they were trying to learn to set up their own world and I was trying to help.' The players could discover the part of the dungeon that had been caved in wasn't any longer and the DM could expand it.

I didn't complete the palace, trying to show them this map could be a mini base map for their game. As she related, 'I was trying to show the players that there was more to a 'dungeon' than just the building.

In keeping with the design of the first D&D module of the 'B' series, B1 In Search of the Unknown by Mike Carr, Wells left several rooms and areas of the module incomplete so that players could customize those areas themselves. She consulted her editor, Ed Sollers, about every detail, and the result was B3 Palace of the Silver Princess. This module would be unique as it was the first TSR adventure authored by a female designer. In 1980, Jean Wells, the only woman in TSR's design department, was assigned to write an adventure for the 'B' (Basic) series that would teach new players how to play D&D using rules for the D&D Basic Set.

G.b.z. oholika iii 320